Analysis of WeChat Reading Products

This series of articles may reach nearly 50,000 words. Taking into account the limited reading energy of readers, we will launch several relatively independent articles based on the versions and iteration focuses.

1. Product Introduction

1. Product Introduction

Nowadays, major mature software products, especially apps that have gone through multiple major versions, have basically entered the stage of focusing on operations and commercialization.

It is very important to understand the original intention of a product - the positioning at the time of project establishment, because subsequent changes will change with changes in the market and corporate strategy, and the positioning will naturally be adjusted , which is unpredictable, but change is the beauty of product making.

The author has done the complete implementation process from 0 to 1 of a product. From the introduction of the APP, the core selling point of the product can actually be shown, and the product positioning can also be roughly deduced. WeChat Reading’s slogan on the AppStore has not changed since then:

• WeChat Reading : It is an official reading application based on the WeChat relationship chain, supporting both iPhone and iPad terminal platforms. While providing a perfect reading experience, it recommends suitable books to users, and users can check the reading status of their WeChat friends, discuss the books they are reading with their friends, etc.
• Carefully polished reading experience : EPUB's exquisite book layout allows you to personalize your own reading style.
• Discover high-quality books with friends : help you discover the next good book that suits you. There is a vast ocean of books. You might as well ask your WeChat friends to help you filter and quickly find high-quality books.
• Discuss, exchange and collide with friends : Encounter your friends' ideas while reading, exchange your reading experience with friends and collide with more sparks. This time, let reading no longer be lonely.
• Compete with your friends in reading time : This serious reading game allows you to easily understand your own reading time. You will not only gain knowledge from reading, but also gain a sense of accomplishment from competing with your friends.

2. Version Overview

(1) Version Record

From the version iteration history of WeChat Reading, from the release of 1.0 on August 27, 2015 to January 22, 2022, WeChat Reading has iterated 141 versions, including 6 major versions, among which:

• 1.0 Iteration 22 versions, 5 medium versions, 17 minor versions
• 2.0 major version has 19 iterations, 4 medium versions, and 15 minor versions
• 3.0 has 17 iterations, 6 mid-level versions, and 11 minor versions.
• 4.0 Iterated 36 versions, 7 medium versions, and 29 minor versions
• Version 5.0 has 29 iterations, 5 mid-level versions, and 24 minor versions.
• 6.0 has been iterated 5 versions so far, 1 medium version, 4 minor versions

Among the updated versions that removed optimization bugs and [improved experience], a total of 77 updated versions with obvious records were screened out.

Among them, 1.0 has 16 versions, 2.0 has 15 versions, 3.0 has 10 versions, 4.0 has 15 versions, 5.0 has 16 versions, and 6.0 has 4 versions.

Afterwards, I spent some time categorizing all versions of content into cards, which were divided into five major categories: reading experience updates, relationship chains and community updates, content derivatives (UGC), content and recommendations, and commercialization.

Then we get the updated content category of each updated version, and then we increase one dimension. From the perspective of the app iteration cycle, we can see that the app update is obviously biased towards history, as shown in the following figure:

(2) Version focus

In the 6 major versions, the reading experience has been continuously updated, which is understandable, because as a reading product, this is the most basic experience guarantee.

From a coarse-grained perspective, the three major versions 1, 2, and 3 mainly focus on optimizing the relationship chain, idea ecology (UGC), and APP content (books, etc.), and exploring commercialization in version 3, while in versions 4 and 5, they began to continuously focus on content filling and commercialization.

The four major categories of versions 1-6 have basically completed comprehensive optimization work and are beginning to return to social (community).

In the 1.0 version, emphasis was placed on the use of WeChat friend relationship chains, such as following friends, friend interactions, personal profile display, book sharing, and other content. The second focus was on creating UGC guidance based on specific books, such as book ratings, ideas, and other operations. Content and recommendations were only started to be built at the end of the version, and it can be seen that the library size was not very large in the early stages.

With the second major version, we will continue to optimize the relationship chain and UGC creation, and at the same time focus on content and recommendation, optimize the bookstore, and fill it with content. This major version is moving forward in parallel. After ensuring the most basic experience of reading and relationship chain in 1.0, we will devote time and energy to make up for the disadvantage of insufficient content.

As of version 3, the updated content is relatively small, mainly focusing on the improvement of some functions of version 2, as well as exploring greater progress in commercialization, and continuing to process content and recommendations.

The 4th version had many updates, focusing on content and recommendations, and commercialization began to continue to gain momentum. The impact of version 4 continued into version 5. In the later stage of version 5, content and recommendations came to an end, and the main optimization was on commercialization.

In version 6, the focus began to be on community building.

Note: Due to its age, version 1.0 of the package cannot be used on the latest system. I bought an iPhone with an old system and it is still unable to run it. It can only run up to version 3.6 at the lowest, and there are crashes at multiple function entrances, which should be caused by data structure modifications.

Therefore, we used search engines to collect product screenshots from version 1.0 in 2015 to version 3.0 in 2019 as a means of analysis. Some functional diagrams are missing, but this article does not analyze the specific details.

2. Big Version 4.0: Storytelling WeChat Official Account

1. Version cycle analysis

Version 4 has iterated 36 versions, 7 medium versions, and 29 minor versions from June 2019 to July 2020. After screening, 14 obviously updated versions can be obtained, as shown in the figure:

From the perspective of the major versions, this is the end of recommended reading based on the friend chain, but it is the development stage of expanding the relationship chain and content recommendation. The commercialization model of version 3 was gradually improved in version 4, and large-scale operations began.

In terms of reading experience, version 4 added audio and video content modes before version 4.5. After exploring audio in versions 1 and 2, WeChat Reading began new explorations in version 4 based on WeChat's overall strategy. However, after version 4.5, audio will continue to be optimized, while there will be no subsequent updates on video.

The PC version was launched in version 4.4, which makes it convenient for users to use it on multiple devices, with seamless links and real-time progress updates.

In version 4.5, the story was updated to "Look", and the logic is consistent with WeChat's "Look".

In version 4.7, it supports one-click uploading of local books, making it convenient for users to upload reading files themselves, and WeChat Reading provides a reader experience.

In terms of relationship chain updates, 4.1 supports automatically setting new books to private after they are added to the bookshelf. This can better ensure users' private reading, rather than just providing options but actually guiding them to be public. This was a problem that users had high feedback on in the first three versions, and this version has solved it. Similarly, 4.2 can also set public account comments to private.

In version 4.5, you can use the "Kanyikan" function to see what your friends are reading and liking. The essential logic is the same as that of "Friends are Reading", but the form remains the same as WeChat's "Kanyikan".

In terms of secondary content creation, it is basically consistent with 3.0, but from the perspective of interface functions and visual weight, friend ideas are not the highlight of this version.

In terms of content and recommendation, the bookstore has undergone major optimization before version 4.5, including the organization and classification of public account content, optimization of the recommendation system, and direct search of bookstore content on the bookshelf.

After 4.5.4, the audiobook section was optimized, including author page updates, separate columns for audio dramas, and a new audiobook rising list.

In terms of commercialization, reading time can be exchanged for unlimited cards, and unlimited card members have more value-added services, such as exclusive font backgrounds, unlimited bookshelves, etc.

Let's start talking about the interface. Version 4 is very different. Its interaction method and information architecture have been greatly changed compared to version 3, and the changes were made in the middle of version 4, so here we divide the core function interface into two parts for analysis.

2. Find a book

Keeping consistent with the architecture of versions 1 and 2, Discovery and Bookshelf are still the first-level interfaces.

In the early version of 4, a new operation welfare center was added and placed on the left side of the card. It can be opened by sliding to the bottom on the left side. Of course, since it is an operation activity, the operation activity downloaded for this version is definitely not the 2019 activity.

The cards on the discovery page have increased the recommendations for book lists. Click on a book list to enter the details, where you can see the creator of the book list, the book list learning, and the composition of the books. Other cards are consistent with version 3.

The bookstore has added a public account category, which shows that the public account is the strategic pillar of the 4th version of the content. The bookstore's search has also been optimized, but the search experience has declined compared to version 3. For real-time search, the displayed information list is not as rich as before, but uses a conventional matching display.

In addition to the books recommended by friends and ideas, in this version, the original idea page is replaced with stories. The stories occupy a first-level page, which is a very big change. If you look closely at the cards in the story stream, they are still recommended content. The recommendation is not based on friends' recommendations. Although it is essentially a machine recommendation, it still uses collaborative filtering, that is, the recommendation of book friends, focusing on people.

The previous concept of WeChat Reading was that based on the friend relationship chain, users could discover more good books based on what their friends were reading. This was a good idea, but it had a natural drawback, namely that the number of friends could not be unlimited, which meant that the types of books that a group of friends could recommend were also limited, and the overlap was relatively large.

However, the book friend chain based on a certain book has more room for development. Book friends who like the same book are more likely to like another similar book. Therefore, this change in WeChat Reading is a book friend reading mode based on system recommendations, which is a supplement to the reading recommendations of friends.

At the same time, the reading burden of this model is relatively small. The original book recommendations are whole books, and the cost of reading a book is relatively high. The reading difficulty of different types of books is even more different. The story recommendation is to display the chapters or wonderful contents in the recommended books separately. Although it is displayed in the form of articles , the operation method is consistent with reading books.

You can check the table of contents, switch chapters, etc. This mode reduces the cost of reading and increases the exposure of the book content. I personally think this idea is very good, but whether it should directly occupy a first-level interface is something that needs to be reconsidered.

Now let's talk about the later version 4. Compared with the early version, the later version 4 will mainly focus on the interaction method and information display.

The discovery page of versions 1, 2, 3 and the early version of 4 all used a horizontal card sliding interaction method, but in the later stage of version 4, it was changed to an up and down card sliding method. This should be to maintain the consistency of the operation logic within the APP. After all, the story page uses an information flow display.

At the same time, the card content display and categories have been updated. For example, the book list can directly display the key information of the first three books on the list, which can help users extract key content more efficiently and assist in viewing decisions. The card has added "You may like it", which is similar to the recommendation of stories, but it is not a chapter recommendation. It still uses the whole book recommendation method. The reason for the recommendation is that book friends are reading it. In this way, the two pages are divided into two types of user recommendations, one is the recommendation of the whole book that friends are reading, and the other is the recommendation of chapters of the books that book friends are reading.

A new weekly reading report for users has also been added, including daily reading time trends, this week's reading time, and content summary. Through data statistics, it is convenient for users to review, improve reading awareness and habits, and stimulate user enthusiasm.

The bookstore has added columns for audio dramas, classification rankings, book lists and free books, and the "Guess You Like" feature has more forms of presentation, such as directly clicking on a tag to enter a tag category, helping the product to improve user portrait tag classification. However, the display weight of online novels has been increased, probably to attract more younger user groups, which will definitely cause dissatisfaction among older users.

The story in the early version of 4 was directly changed to "Take a look" in the later version of 4, which is similar to WeChat's "Take a look". It can be turned off in the settings, and it becomes a book recommendation, but it is no longer a recommendation of the chapter content in the early stage.

To be honest, I don't quite understand the purpose of changing the story's name to "Take a Look". I guess it should be:

The WeChat Reading platform provides traffic for official accounts, and official accounts add content to WeChat Reading. At that time, WeChat did not distribute official accounts, but WeChat Reading, as a vertical field, was able to provide recommendations and distribute traffic. This model is very good for content construction and traffic distribution, and can also cover pure official account reading users.

But it changed too quickly and there are many problems. For example, just looking at it will kill users' time and will not let users leave after using it. In addition, the information redundancy on the first-level interface is very unfriendly to the user experience. Secondly, the quality of recommended content is difficult to control and there are no stable recommendation rules.

3. Reading

The bookshelf page, the initial version 4 has not changed much compared to version 3. The main thing is that the bookshelf page has added a function entrance for the computer version. Because the WeChat platform basically logs in by scanning a code, a scan entrance is placed on the bookshelf. The classification display of books on the shelf in the original search interface is placed on the first-level interface of the bookshelf, and the editor is placed in the search bar. This layout is somewhat unreasonable, and the books and corresponding operations cannot be well mapped.

I personally feel a little confused about the search display of the bookshelf. The search in the bookstore only displays matching text, while the search in the bookshelf shows the same information as version 3, showing the searched cover and author. I don't understand why.

In the function area above the reading page, we have added the share function that was previously placed in more. This is probably because the original path was too deep and there was too little sharing behavior data.

4 Later version, compared with the early version, the functional layout of the bookshelf has been adjusted. The classification display and editing functions of the books on the shelf have been grouped into one category, more operation entrances have been made in the search bar, the original computer version scanning login has been added, and the guidance instructions of the ink screen version, the import of computer files, the import of iCloud files, the bookstore entrance and book recommendations have been added.

The later versions obviously support users' local file uploading, and WeChat Reading supports its reading experience, which is indeed very convenient for users. Some books are not available in the library, but there is a high probability that individuals will use pirated books, which is strictly speaking an infringement. Of course, as a platform, it is playing a gray ball.

In the reading section, the original chapters include a table of contents, notes, and popular highlights, but notes and popular highlights are not easy to find and require 2 to 3 steps to see them. Later versions split notes and popular highlights separately and merged them into a new function, which is placed below the personalized operations, making it more convenient to view your own thoughts and the highlights of the book.

The rest is to optimize the experience of display, progress and font operations to ensure consistency and improve the experience.

4. On Books

The idea section has greatly reduced its weight in this version, and its functions remain unchanged. It is in great conflict with the product positioning and concepts of versions 1, 2, and 3. From the product point of view, I cannot guess that it must have been changed too much. In fact, a look or a story is itself a branch of discovery, and there is no need to occupy a first-level page. Moreover, this first-level interface itself is reserved for friends' idea dynamics.

On the personal page, the original list has been adjusted. The initial version incorporates the reading team required for operations into the social subcategory, and the daily answers are grouped separately, and the reading records and note lists of the bookshelf are grouped together.

In the later versions, the list was adjusted again, and the operation-related functions were integrated into one function set. For the welfare field, reading notes and notes were grouped into one function set. Compared with the early versions, the architecture has made certain progress, but the information hierarchy of notes, readings and subscriptions is still worth discussing.

In terms of commercialization and user growth, reading time can be exchanged for unlimited cards. Reading for 1, 3, or 5 hours can be exchanged for one-day unlimited cards respectively, but the weekly limit is 3 days, and the excess cannot be exchanged. Obviously, this is to make way for operational activities, including answering questions to share unlimited cards, and inviting new friends or friends to return to get three-day unlimited cards.

According to preliminary calculations, if users of version 4 want to get unlimited cards every week, after exchanging 3 unlimited cards for reading time, they need to invite a friend to get 3 days, and then answer questions to get at least 1 day, to meet the 7-day requirement. The cost of free reading is lower than version 3, but there are still certain experience issues. For example, invitations. If you want free reading every month, you need to ensure to invite 4 friends a month.

5. Version market feedback

Look at the download volume of version 4:

As shown in the download, this data comes from the download volume of Qimai Data iOS. There is a section of abnormal data. Because the data on the Android side is a normal curve, it is spliced.

It can be seen that after version 4.5, the number of downloads has a certain downward trend, but it should be related to operations. In terms of user feedback, querying the rating records of Qimai data, there are 1015 comments on the IOS side.

The positive reviews are similar to the past. The one-star and two-star low reviews are mainly concentrated after version 4.5, which has affected the download volume. The number of one-star negative reviews for version 4.5 reached 2,248, and the user reputation has dropped sharply. The negative reviews are concentrated in:

• The unlimited card has a limited free range, and chapters also require payment;
• There are too many pornographic member advertisements in the content;
• There are many bugs in the operation function;
• I can't concentrate on reading after reading it because it's too complicated.

It can be said that the market feedback for version 4, especially version 4.5, is the worst. Since we don’t know how the revenue is, this version should be considered a relatively failed version. The commercialization model obviously has huge drawbacks, which is far from the intangible and advanced commercialization concept that WeChat mentioned.

3. Major version 5.0: a continuation of the past and a harbinger of the future?

1. Version cycle analysis

Version 5.0 has iterated 29 versions, 5 medium versions, and 24 minor versions from August 2020 to September 2021. After screening, 15 obviously updated versions can be obtained, as shown in the figure:

From the perspective of the major versions, version 5 mainly focuses on optimizing the major regulatory issues that occurred in the business and operations of version 4, while making final optimizations to the bookstore and other content. A new round of relationship chains and community building are on the agenda. Historically, this version is the connecting version between the first and second major iterations of WeChat Reading.

5.0.0 moves the book list to the bookshelf, and 5.0.5 supports the addition of more types of books.

5.3.5, 5.4.1 and 5.5.4 support uploading local files in more formats and optimize the reading of commonly used PDF files. 5.5.3 supports WeChat collection and public account article reading in floating windows, which takes into account users' past file reading needs.

The relationship community, which had not been updated before, ushered in a new round of updates.

The circle function was added in version 5, which supports users to post topics in the circle, interact with other users, and synchronize the reading status to the WeChat status and look.

The secondary derivative contents of specific books such as ideas have not been updated, and minor optimizations have been made to the comments. Of course, posts in the circle can also be regarded as a kind of idea.

In terms of content and recommendations, the bookstore navigation also appears on the "Look" page, and the search results support category viewing, with the authors, works, and other information of the books directly displayed.

In the commercialization section, version 5 began to open up e-commerce in the book field, and paper books can be purchased within the APP. Both versions 5.2.2 and 5.4.5 have optimized and adjusted the reading time redemption that existed in the previous 4 versions, and updated the rights and interests of paid members in 5.2.2.

Let's start talking about the interface. Compared with version 4, the interface changes of version 5 are relatively small, which are basically adjustments to the secondary function entrances. Since WeChat Reading separated audiobooks into a separate APP - WeChat Audiobooks on December 5, there are many traffic entrances in version 5, which will not be analyzed.

2. Find a book

The discovery page adds quick access to bookstore categories, such as categories and book lists, which directly display some key categories to encourage users to click. The logic of book search is now very complete. Those with direct target needs can conduct precise searches through search, those with a general direction can view them through the category entrance, and those who are aimless can also select through classification and recommendation cards.

The cards on the discovery page remain consistent with version 4. The difference is that there are more operation-related cards, such as co-branded cards. On the look page, there is a bookstore and a search bar. At the same time, friends' ideas, friends' likes and today's updates are placed in one category. The default is today's updates. You can refresh the recommendations by pulling down.

To be honest, not only in terms of content but also in terms of functional interface, Take a Look and Discover are very similar, especially the recommendations. Except for the different displays, the logic is consistent. The Discover page contains more operational content, while the Take a Look page contains more ideas from friends.

When you click on the recommended books, the online reviews will be updated. Previously, there were only simple star reviews, but now they are directly divided into three feelings: good, average and not good. Compared with before, users can more intuitively feel the popularity of the books, and the recommendation value also has a text description.

Within the bookstore, the list recommendations also have a clear bias. Version 4 over-promotes online novels, with information display taking a high priority. Version 5 returns to version 3, with content recommendations no longer being singular and lists differing for different people.

3. Reading

When it comes to reading, the bookshelf and book list are at the same level, and the categories are displayed directly. Unlike version 4, you no longer need to click to view, which is more efficient.

The bookshelf editor has added the pinning function, which can pin books to the top. The book list was added in version 4. Local upload has more format support to facilitate users with special needs. The bookshelf search is consistent with version 4.

There are no significant updates to the reading experience.

4. On Books

The weight of friends’ ideas is the same as in version 4, and is still placed at a lower priority. Friends’ likes are more obvious than idea entries.

The recommendation idea of ​​version 5 is not much different from that of version 4. I guess it is to collect user data and make a good recommendation model?

However, after accumulating users and original content over four versions, WeChat Reading has finally launched a community function, which is called a circle in the APP. Through the book reading page, you can enter the content circle to which the book belongs. For example, books from the Han Dynasty are classified in the history circle. The function entrance is very obvious, and color is used as a strong reminder.

After clicking into the circle, you can see the user posts in that circle, including all real-time posts, sorted by default time, and also featured posts. I don’t know if it is operated by the backend operators or determined by the system. Users need to join the circle before they can post, but what’s interesting is that the guidance on the posting page is to write down your thoughts? I suspect this was modified from the template posted by Idea.

Click on the square in the upper right corner? Discover? You can enter the circle list, which shows the circles you have joined and not joined. The circles are sorted according to their activity. The circles include literary categories, workplace topics, etc., as well as circles specific to a certain book.

To be honest, after reviewing the first four versions, I believed that WeChat Reading would move beyond the content community, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

In terms of the depth of the functional entry path, it is still in the initial trial stage, but the certain UGC that has been accumulated will definitely not be given up easily.

But if you think about it, it is indeed very reasonable. With the three major versions 1, 2, and 3, users can access the books their friends are reading through the relationship chain. As more and more users read them, there will be more and more original content (ideas, comments).

Once the content is established, system recommendations can be made. After all, a person's friends are limited and there is no greater tension, while the number of readers of a book is infinite, and the system can make recommendations based on objects and people.

But a new problem arises. No matter how much user content a book has, it is limited to a single book and cannot break the circle. If you want to break through the content walls of each book, it is very contradictory. For example, the audience of cultivation novels and serious literary novels do not overlap, which can easily cause a decline in the quality of the community environment and may cause the community to die before it matures.

Therefore, the idea of ​​creating circles based on major categories is relatively better. The books are similar and the preferences of the user groups are similar, so it will not be easy to cause non-opinion-based quarrels and conflicts. Moreover, if the topic is discussed based on a major category, high-quality content will be generated. It is not limited to a certain book, but the ideas of readers of multiple books will be gathered together to form positive and meaningful thinking.

Although the functions are somewhat simple, it is a WeChat product after all, and we will definitely increase investment in this area in the future. In addition, the function entry hierarchy will be adjusted in the future. It should be placed on the same level as "Take a look" and "Friends' Ideas".

In version 4, notes, reads and subscriptions are separated again and added into a group with shopping cart and orders. It is the prototype of a small shopping mall. The products are paper books. When the user clicks to enter the reading page, if the book has paper resources, it will be displayed above the reading page. This is also a direction of commercialization.

The logic of unlimited cards is the same as version 4, but the rules for free unlimited card redemption have been adjusted. Since version 4 was criticized too much by users and damaged the user experience , the existing redemption rules have been changed to the following:

Reading for 1 minute, 1 hour, 3 hours, and 5 hours can be redeemed for a 4-day unlimited card, without any threshold. 2 days of reading can be exchanged for 1 day unlimited card or 1 book coin, 4 days of reading can be exchanged for 1 day unlimited card or 3 book coins, and 7 days of reading can be exchanged for 2 days unlimited cards or 6 book coins. To redeem, you need to watch a 15s advertising video or share.

This set of redemption rules is much more reasonable, especially for heavy users, who can get unlimited cards every week, and even accumulate days or book coins.

5. Version market feedback

Take a look at the downloads and ratings of the 5 versions:

As shown in the download data, this data comes from the download volume of Qimai Data iOS. It can be seen that after version 5.3, the user download volume has reached a new level, and the download volume before and after version 5.4 has remained above the version average.

In terms of user feedback, we checked the rating records of Qimai Data and found that there were 1,100 one-star reviews on the iOS side. The low one-star and two-star reviews were mainly concentrated before version 5.4. The main reason was that the time redemption rules of version 4 were still criticized. The negative reviews were concentrated in:

• The unlimited card has a limited free range, and chapters also require payment;
• The content of the articles in the official account is too poor and interferes with reading;
• The influence of circles on reading is like chicken ribs;
• The vertical sliding contents are all member advertisements;

The impact of version 4 directly affects the reputation of version 5 in the early and middle stages, and it is mainly concentrated on the business model. The unlimited card is not free, there are too many advertisements, etc.

Overall, the commercialization of version 4 was too aggressive and the rules were unreasonable. It was not until version 5 that things improved, but user habits and experience were greatly damaged. The most intuitive feeling is that it wanted to do everything but didn't do anything well.

Interestingly, the recommended content of WeChat Reading on iOS has not changed: while providing a perfect reading experience, it recommends suitable books to users, and users can check the reading status of WeChat friends, discuss the books they are reading with friends, etc.

But when I saw this recommendation again, the product had changed a lot.

To describe versions 1 to 5 in one word, they started off well but ended badly, but from a business perspective rather than a user perspective, it is understandable. WeChat Reading is a product of WeChat. It is strong in that it is a product based on social networking, but it is not so good at distribution and recommendation and traffic activation. In version 3, which is the third year of WeChat Reading, it has been shouldering the heavy task of exploring commercialization and making recommendations and distribution, which is really very hard.

Now that WeChat has been around for ten years and its video account has gradually gained momentum, will the concept of content platform undergo new changes in the next ten years?